WIRED Awake: 10 must-read articles for February 27

Your WIRED daily briefing. Today, Zenimax is seeking an injunction to take the Oculus Rift off the market, Samsung has launched its new Galaxy Tab S3 and Galaxy Book at MWC, Google is rolling out its Assistant AI to older Android devices and more.

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Zenimax has reportedly filed an injunction that could see the Oculus Rift and the software needed to use it taken off the market (Gizmodo). According to UploadVR, the injunction proposes that Oculus be "permanently enjoined, on a worldwide basis, from using…any of the Copyrighted Materials, including but not limited to (i) system software for Oculus PC (including the Oculus PC SDK); (ii) system software for Oculus Mobile (including the Oculus Mobile SDK); (iii) Oculus integration with the Epic Games Unreal Engine; and (iv) Oculus integration with the Unity Technologies Unity Game Engine." The filing follows a court battle that found that Facebook-owned Oculus unlawfully used Zenimax's code in the Rift's software. Facebook has responded to the injunction by saying that the original verdict was "legally flawed and factually unwarranted".

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Samsung has, as suspected, not revealed a new flagship handset (although the Galaxy S8 is expected to be unveiled on March 29) but it has announced two new tablets: the Galaxy Tab S3 and the Galaxy Book (WIRED). Focusing on video, the Galaxy Tab S3 has a 9.7-inch Super AMOLED display, while the Galaxy Book comes in two versions: a 10.6-inch TFT LCD model as well as a 12-inch Super AMOLED one. Both support HDR (High Dynamic Range) video content. The Galaxy Tab S3 has a 6,000mAh battery that can give up to 12 hours of video playback, as well as Vulkan API and Game Launcher for an improved gaming experience. Samsung also announced an upgrade to its Gear VR virtual reality system, powered by your Samsung smartphone, launching the Samsung Gear VR with Controller powered by Oculus - the company’s first Gear VR headset with a controller.

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Google will be rolling out its AI-powered Assistant to all Android devices running version 6.0 - Marshmallow - and above (WIRED). Assistant was originally launched exclusively on Google's latest Pixel phones, but will now come to older devices as part of an update to the Google Search app, which Assistant is now built into. Assistant closely resembles the existing 'Ok Google' assistant but includes an instant-messenger style interface and a few extra human touches. Google said that "The Google Assistant will begin rolling out this week to English users in the U.S., followed by English in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, as well as German speakers in Germany. We'll continue to add more languages over the coming year." The release means that roughly 30 per cent of Android devices in these regions will get the feature.

The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) - the telecommunications wing of the United Nations - has published a draft standard for 5G mobile broadband (Ars Technica). The specification calls for a minimum throughput of 20Gbps down and 10Gbps up for each cell tower, to be divided between all users on the cell. 5G must also support at least 1 million connected devices per square kilometre - a move that anticipates the increasing use of mobile broadband by Internet of Things devices. The standard, which carries the official name IMT-2020, will now move forward as regulators consider practical elements required to implement the specification, such as which bands of the radio spectrum it will use.

The UK government is going to lead a "major review" into what artificial intelligence means for the country's economy as part of its long-awaited Digital Strategy (WIRED). It is claimed, based on figures from Accenture, that AI could add £654 billion to the UK's economy by 2035. However, research from the think tank Reform has suggested 250,000 public sector jobs administration jobs could be replaced by chat bots, artificial intelligence, and automation by 2030. The review will be led by the University of Southampton's computer science professor Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti from BenevolentAI. “There has been a lot of unwarranted negative hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it has the ability to drive enormous growth for the UK economy, create jobs, foster new skills, positively transform every industry and retain Britain’s status as a world leader in innovative technology," Pesenti said. The confirmation of the AI review is expected to take place in the government's Digital Strategy set to be published on March 1 by secretary of state for culture Karen Bradley.

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Sony has revealed that its PlayStationVR virtual reality headset has sold 915,000 units worldwide since its release last October (TechCrunch). At £349, the PS VR is significantly cheaper than its PC-oriented rivals, the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, which cost £759 and £898 respectively, if you want Oculus' Touch Controller along with your Rift. With only a PlayStation 4 required to use the PS VR system, it's also less intimidating for many gamers than the potentially costly process of assembling a VR-capable PC. While neither HTC nor Oculus has released sales figures, they're widely thought to have sold fewer than 500,000 units each, making the PS VR the current surprise winner of the home VR wars.

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The iconic, indestructible Nokia 3310 is back, 17 years after it first launched, in a redesigned incarnation (WIRED). The new Nokia 3310 is smaller, sleeker and reportedly has 22 hours of talk time with a one month battery life on standby. And, of course, it comes with Snake. Available in gloss red-and-yellow and matte blue-and-grey, the new Nokia 3310 has a 2.4-inch colour screen, Bluetooth 3.0, an FM radio, LED torch, microSD card support up to 32GB and a two megapixel camera. The 2.5G connection even lets you go online – albeit very slowly – to access Twitter, Facebook and other services through the Opera Mini browser. Priced at €49 (£41) the phone has a release date set for the second quarter of 2017.

Legendary anime director and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has officially come out of retirement to create a new full-length feature film, to be released by Ghibli (Kotaku). Miyazaki retired in 2013, but released a computer-animated short, Kemushi no Boro ("Boro the Caterpillar") in 2015 and last year said that he wanted to make "one more feature film". While there's currently no word on the film's title or story, Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki confirmed in a pre-Oscars interview that he will be producing Miyazaki's next movie.

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Amazon and Netflix both picked up Oscars at last night's Academy Awards ceremony - a first for the streaming media companies, with Amazon's Manchester by the Sea winning both best original screenplay and best actor for Casey Affleck (Hollywood Reporter). Another Amazon production, Iranian drama, The Salesman, won best foreign-language film, while Netflix's The White Helmets, about rescue workers in Syria and Turkey, won best documentary short. While both Amazon and Netflix produce content primarily for their own streaming services, Amazon's films also get full theatrical releases, which has endeared it to more traditional elements in the US movie industry.

Goldhawk Interactive, the maker of Xenonauts, spiritual successor to the original 1994 X-COM/UFO: Enemy Unknown has invited gamers to play public development builds of the game's new sequel (RockPaperShotgun). The Xenonauts-2 demo is available to download for free from GOG.com and you can expect it to be updated fortnightly with new builds of the strategy game, which sees you trying to take out alien invaders in a Cold War setting. Goldhawk says that "We’re in a pretty good place right now – we’re making steady progress on the game and we’ve been able to polish the gameplay experience enough that it’s now possible to play the ground combat mission in the public demo and actually have fun."

In July 2015, 100 geneticists met at the New York Genome Center to discuss yeast. At 12 million base pairs long, it's the largest genome scientists have tried to produce synthetically. Andrew Hessel, a researcher with the Bio/Nano research group at software company Autodesk, was invited to speak at the event. The audience asked him which organism should be synthesised next. "I said, 'Look around the room. You've got hardly anyone here and you're doing the most sophisticated genetic engineering in the world," Hessel recalls. "Why don't you take a page out of history and set the bar high? Do the human genome."

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